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David Archer Cemetery in Johnny Appleseed Park
On the hill near the east side of Parnell Avenue, southeast Harry Baals Drive and just south of the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum parking lots. A 1972 application for the Johnny Appleseed Memorial Park to the National Register of Historic Places at the National Park Service on page 2 under Item 7, Description, states the Old David Archer cemetery consisting of 2 acres of land, and containing the grave of John Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed. If the cemetery contained 2 acres of land how many other pioneers were buried here and what happened to their tombstones and any records of burials? The local Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter NSDAR photographed the cemetery in April 2009 and found only 3 tombstones, but lists 22 names from their 1932 DAR readings on their Archer Cemetery web page.
This early settler cemetery includes the John Johnny Appleseed Chapman burial site. IN DNR Latitude 41.1117 Longitude 85.1233. See our Johnny Appleseed and Johnny Appleseed Newpaper page for more information especially a July 15, 1923 description of the status of the Johnny Appleseed grave site describing the site as: we found one of the most neglected and lonely burial places in all Indiana. A tangle undergrowth of brier, shrub and tree, with here and there a headstone, half buried, half revealed in the sandy soil, indicated the nature of the place. An iron fence surrounding the grave of Johnny Apppleseed gave information that it had been placed there by the Horticultural society of Indiana. This, and nothing more. .
A May 3, 1914 newspaper article Two Men in Allen County Were Present at Appleseed Funeral. Clipped from The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 03 May 1914, Sunday, page 6, by StanFollisFW on 20 Feb 2022 says the cemetery In addition to Appleseed, some twenty or twenty-five persons have been buried in the David Archer cemetery. It contains about a half acre of ground and consequently not large enough to bury a great number. Another article on May 10, 1914 states it originally contained the graves of around 150 people! "Too Bad Johnny Appleseed Died So Early in Life;" His Life; Work Clipped from The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 10 May 1914, Sunday, page 48, by RonaldChard1960 on 24 March 2017 titled: Another Johnny Appleseed article from 1914. Hiram Porter living on a farm in St. Joe township recalled Johnny Appleseed. In one paragraph he says: I can show you the cemetery and the spot where Appleseed is buried. If I am not mistaken 150 [6?] people are buried there. My father and my two wives rest there, my three children and a brother and sister. That was known as the Old David Archer cemetery and for many years it was quite a curiosity. Now it seems to me more of a curiosity than ever from the way people are talking about it. So one has to wonder if either article is correct?
This is one of the most heavily researched pieces I've written. It was fun to be able to travel to these historic sites and conduct some scavenger hunt research over the last two months!
A December 15, 2021 comment to the post said missing tombstones from the Archer Cemetery near the Allen County Memorial Coliseum may be somewhere in the coliseum. Anyone know anything. This is also known as the Johnny Appleseed Graveyard.
Several years later, they erected a small log church in the northwest part of the township, which was known as “ Bethel Church.” The ground for the chapel and cemetery was donated by George Ash ley. Rev. J. W. Winans was the first minister. The building is still standing and is occupied by the sexton of the cemetery.
2904 West Washington Center Road, next to, and in front of, the trailer court
The Township Cemetery was donated by Thomas Hatfield in 1830. It consists of one acre, which was originally a part of his farm, on Section 22, and is still used for the purpose for which it was designed.
The first death in the township was that of Mary, wife of Joseph Gill, whose remains were interred in this cemetery.
Earliest date is 1816. Still in use. IN DNR Latitude 41.1314 Longitude 85.1786.
A group of volunteers organized to clean the unkempt cemetery with headstones including a gravestone for a Civil War veteran and other finds forgotten under an overgrowth of vines, moss and other vegetation in the summer of 2020 forming a Facebook group called Hatfield Cemetery 1830 and featured in Volunteers tend to neglected cemetery by Ashley Sloboda published September 07, 2020 in The Journal Gazette newspaper. The Facebook page includes a copy of the Hatfield Cemetery Association Secretary's Ledger book for Washington Township, Allen County, Indiana.
Uniquely located between Coldwater Road and I-69 at Ludwig Road inside the highway interchange. Interstate I-69 was proposed in 1957 almost 100 years after the first burial in 1858 in the cemetery from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Allen County - Fort Wayne Historical Society sign on the DAR page has a brief early history of the church.
Earliest date 1858. Last burial appears to be an infant in October 1940.No longer in use. Some German language tombstones. IN DNR Latitude 41.1397 Longitude 85.1358 is barely south of Google map location by less than 100 feet.
Construction is getting ready to begin on the I-69 and Coldwater Road interchange in Fort Wayne. Not everything is starting at once so you'll want to keep in mind the changes you could experience when driving through the area. Read more at the link below.
Interstate I-69 was proposed in 1957 almost 100 years after the first burial in 1858 in the cemetery from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Early French settlers. The original church was on the north side, locally famous as the the popular Halloween Haunted Castle it was torn down in 2007. There was a cholera epidemic in 1854, cemetery was used as a common grave for many. IN DNR Latitude 41.1603 Longitude 85.1192.
When visitors enter the Oratory of St. Mary Magdalene in Fort Wayne, among the many beautiful and striking sights before them, they will see engraved beneath the Cross of Christ, “Behold, I make all things new.” These words from the Book of Revelation encapsulate the entire story of salvation while also describing the spiritual work which takes place in the Oratory, as the Lord continually “makes new” those who offer their time and their hearts to Him in His Eucharistic presence.
In a unique way, the outside of the Oratory has now been made new as well.
Find-A-Grave photo
